Richards persuaded band to skip Live 8

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Guitarist Keith Richards said today that his wariness of
politics persuaded his fellow Rolling Stones to skip the July
concerts aimed at pressuring the world's richest leaders to cut
poverty in Africa.

In a BBC television interview from the United States at the
start of a world tour to promote a new Stones album, Richards said
lead singer Mick Jagger and Live8 concert organiser Bob Geldof had
begged him to take part.

"I just thought the connection between Geldof and the Labour
Party policy ... It was just too tight; and I don't see debt
reduction as being like - it's not going to feed the babies down
there," Richards said.

"I mean, who's this gratifying and where are the Africans? Where
was their say? And I thought it was being stuck together too fast.
I never had so much pressure in my life from so many knights of the
realm," he said.

He confirmed that Jagger, who was made Sir Mick four years ago,
and Geldof, who was given an honorary knighthood in 1986, who had
tried to convince him to participate.

"Oh yeah, all the Sirs had a bash, believe me. Every one of
them. I wondered who was pulling the strings, that's all. You know
what I mean?"

Star-studded concerts highlighting the plight of Africa were
held in London and nine other cities worldwide in the run-up to the
July 6-8 summit in Scotland of the Group of Eight leading
industrial countries.

Richards, 61, was also wary when Jagger, 62, wrote Sweet
Neo-Con, an attack on the US neo-Conservatives who pushed for
the overthrow of the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

The song features in the new album, A Bigger Bang,
scheduled for release next week.

In the end, Richards did not object to the lyrics. "Personally,
to me, I never think about politicians if I'm going to write a
song. It's like a blank area to me. They all come and go, and I'm
trying to write about more universal stuff. But if you feel like
[it], then let's go," he said.

"I just didn't want it to become some peripheral
distractions/political storm in a tea-cup sort of thing. But if you
want to do it, let's go. I'm with you all the way."

He said he did not want the band to be seen as political. "I
just want to be seen as a good band and a great band ..."

Jagger said in the interview that "social comment was very much
part of what the Stones had always done" though Sweet
Neo-Con was more overtly political.

Asked how Americans would react, Jagger said some would welcome
the song and others would "boo" it, depending on their political
views.

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